I. INTRODUCTION

(1) In sociology, linear evolutionary models of change distort the
contradictory complexity of underlying social proceesses. We may be
captivated by the simplicity of models that project a unilinear and
homogeneous progression from rural to urban societies, from
gemeinshaft to gesellshaft, from mechanical to organic solidarity, or
from pre-industrial to industrial to post-industrial societies. The
materialist thesis and antithesis of the contradictory dialectic in
the revolutionary change from primitive to slave to feudal to
capitalist to socialist and to communist society should appeal more to
us as grounded sociologists. Yet even this model has collapsed under
the weight of contradictory modes of production in any given society
as well as the possibility of reversals (such as the current
dismantling of the welfare state in advanced capitalist societies) and
'stage- skipping' (such as the technologically sophisticated
post-industrial revolution now occurring in some previously
underdeveloped areas of the world).

(2) The resistance to simplistic 'stagism' becomes all the greater
when we add other dimensions, such as gender, to what was previously
thought to be THE fundamental variable -- social class. In
periods of rapid social change, such as our own, patriarchal ideas and
practices survive longer in some parts of an organization, while
feminist ideas and practices take hold elsewhere. Across an
organization, rates of change vary: patriarchy may deteriorate, or
re-emerge, at different speeds in each part; feminism may also
advance, or be reversed, at different rates in each part. Particular
areas of organizations are thus in different stages of transition
between patriarchy and feminism, though one may not want to resort to
a stage model as the backlash from patriarchy asserts itself in
several areas. Regardless of one's model, the gender profile of
organizations today resembles more a multi-coloured quilt than the
dualism of the Indonesian flag.

(3) These comments apply to almost all organizations, among which
are trade unions. The women's movement and feminists have castigated
trade unions for their historical patriarchal structures, ideologies,
and practices, though evidence of feminist struggles in early trade
unions has also been noted. FN_1 Evolutionary models of a gradual transition
among unions from a patriarchal past to a feminist present have usually
been rejected in favour of conflict models highlighting the struggles
of women in general, and feminists in particular, in the labour
movement against the patriarchal residues of the past which continue
to influence present practices, structures and ideas. FN_2 This means that any depiction of the
movement from trade union patriarchy to feminism will be a
multi-coloured quilt of strong patriarchy in some areas, significant
inroads by feminism in others, and a 'garden variety' of patriarchy
and feminism in still other areas.

(4) 'Feminism ' and 'patriarchy', like many terms bridging
political and scientific discourses, are heavily laden with multiple
ideological meanings. Many groups have staked out prescribed (and
proscribed) definitions, meanings, and usages for these terms.
Scientific analysis can benefit from this, but can also be corrupted by
it. The theoretical/political distinctions among marxist, socialist,
radical, liberal, and cultural currents of feminism may initially
sensitize one to particular ways of viewing sex and gender relations,
but can also erect roadblocks to more nuanced analyses. Although
socialist feminists have critiqued some radical feminists for
emphasizing biological aspects of sex/gender relations, and while
radical feminists have castigated some socialist feminists for a
monocausal fixation on class, what are we to do with the incorporation
of biological constraints in some socialist feminist theories, and
the use of (sex or gender) classes among some radical feminists.
Additionally, the political praxis of many feminists is built on
coalitions and alliances (as in the day care and pro-choice movements)
that cross theoretical /political categories of liberal, radical and
socialist. Liberal feminists have often been accused of seeking
solutions for gender inequality only in socialization, education and
the law. But what are we to make of the campaign by socialist
feminists inside the labour movement to hold workshops and seminars to
teach women the niceties of labour law and the skills of collective
bargaining and leadership? Education and law are central ingredients
in such campaigns.

(5) Likewise the term 'patriarchy' comes laden with ideological
baggage and political stakeholding. While socialist feminists used to
ridicule radical feminists for investing 'the enemy' (all men) with a
term ('patriarchy') that was trans- historical, timeless and universal
and therefore useless for political organizing and scientific analyses,
many radical feminists have employed 'patriarchy' to analyze specific
historical societies and culture- bound phenomena, and some socialist
feminists have hyphenated capitalism with 'patriarchal' ('patriarchal
capitalism'). The preference by some socialist feminists for a term
like 'masculine dominance' masks common underlying dimensions, such as
male power, which it shares with 'patriarchy.' None of this
discussion denies the fundamental orientational differences among
feminist currents and practices. It is merely to note the
considerable complexity that lies beneath the surface of simple
categorizations.

(6) Data depicting such complexity in the labour movement come in
many forms -- quantitative surveys of unions, qualitative analysis of
open-ended interviews with union activists, or analysis of archival
documents over a period of time. Still another data source comes
under the rubric of 'visual sociology'. The historical mix of
patriarchy and feminism can be expressed through pictures,
photographs, graphics, and cartoons. These visual expressions can be
taken as a barometer of transitions and reversals between patriarchy
and feminism in different areas of trade union practices, structures,
and ideologies. In the present paper, the textual thematic analysis
of such material is carried out utilizing two capabilities of the
electronic medium: hypertext, linking one text to another;
and,
hypermedia, linking text, graphics, and sound.

(7) Erving Goffman's 'GENDER ADVERTISEMENTS' FN_3 is also an example of 'visual
sociology', but was published before the advent of electronic journals.
So his work, unlike the present paper, could not benefit from
hypertext and hypermedia. More importantly, there are two substantive
and sociological differences between his work and the present. First,
he analyzes his photographs at a microscopic level such as body
position, hand movements, nuzzling, and eyes drifting, despite some
initial statements professing an interest in 'social structure'. I
analyze mine linking the microscopic to the macroscopic. Themes in
photographs and cartoons are symptomatic of structures of patriarchy
and feminism in trade union organizations. Thus, I pay less attention
to body position as an interest itself than what it may tell us about
larger social structures. Second, Goffman's photographs in 'GENDER
ADVERTISEMENTS' are timeless, though they are taken from a
particular period of history. But time is not a factor in his
analysis. Mine places time at the centre of the analysis; it is the
'transitions' from patriarchy to feminism between 1954 and 1986 that
provide the link between the two gender structures in the paper.

(8) Data for this paper are taken primarily from the 'RWDSU
RECORD', the major labour paper of the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union, which operated in the United States and Canada
from 1937 until 1994 when it merged with the United Food and
Commercial Workers Union in the United States and the United
Steelworkers of America in Canada. It represented workers primarily
in wholesale and retail food, health care (in the United States only),
department stores, and some manufacturing plants. It was a
comparatively small union, increasing its international membership from
40,000 in 1937, when it was founded through a split with the Retail
Clerks International Association, to a high of about 250,000 in 1984.
But the influence of its labour press far exceeded its membership: the
'RWDSU RECORD' received numerous newspaper awards, and its
articles and graphics were reprinted by other labour papers, increasing
the scope of its ideological influence.

(9) This paper is organized textually and graphically. Readers/viewers
thus have the option to gain rapid access to all parts of the paper by
using either a text-based table of contents displayed in the top half
of the TOC file,
or by a graph-based menu or time-organized table of contents displayed
in the bottom half of the TOC file. The graphical table of contents
consists of two branches: a
conceptual branch that allows the reader to visually grasp the
logical relations among the major concepts and simultaneouly access all
parts of the paper from this visual display of conceptual logic; and, a
time
branch (described more fully in the next paragraph) that focuses on
the time sequence of the major concepts and simultaneously providing
the reader with a different access to all parts of the paper). The
first branch, containing the logical conceptual apparatus of the paper,
locates sexism
at the centre of the intersection of three spheres -- domestic, wage
labour, and trade unions. This is depicted in the hypergraph called
the
THEORY
MAP. It branches off into three main graphical menus --
the 'DOMESTIC
MENU', the 'WAGE LABOUR MENU', and the 'TRADE UNION MENU'. There are also secondary links
(leading to the main text or other graphical menus) between wage
labour and trade unions ('WOMEN'S UNION ORGANIZING'), the domestic and
wage labour spheres
('DOUBLE DAY OF LABOUR'), and the domestic and trade union
spheres ('UNION WIVES'). Clicking on any of the concepts (hotspots) in
the graphical menus will take you to the relevant sub-menus and from
thence to the text of the paper. This is merely one means by which
hypermedia can help to explicate the theoretical structure of a paper.
Another means is by clicking through the other main graphical branch
based on the concept of time and transitions (outlined
in the next paragraph). You can, of course, jump back and forth
between the two branches, and from there to the text table of contents.
.

(10) In this paper, a homogeneous linear evolution from a
patriarchal past to a feminist present/future is rejected in favour of
the notion of uneven 'transitions'. These are depicted in the
second graphical branch, a series of time-based hypergraphs called 'TIMELINE',
'SEXTIME', 'DOMESTIC TIME', 'WAGE LABOUR TIME', and 'TRADE UNION TIME'. The uneveness of the transitions from
patriarchy (in blue) to emergent feminism (in pink) between 1954 and
the present is set in bold relief by the varying starting and ending
points of the horizonal bars. As a time-based graphical table of
contents, they provide the reader immediate access to all parts of the
article. They possess the following characteristics.

Up to the latter 1960s and early 1970s, the RWDSU was
predominantly patriarchal, with emergent feminist practices and ideas,
especially in the area of wage labour.

The various currents of feminism do not dominate the recent past
and present in the way patriarchy dominated the distant past; in other
words, feminism is far from institutionalized. In this restricted
sense, feminist currents have had some influence since the latter
1970s. This is primarily a combination of trade union feminism (focus
on the rights of union women) and liberal feminism (focusing on legal
and equality rights). Socialist and radical feminism play minor roles
in the RWDSU. Rather than pushing for a socialist or feminist
revolution, RWDSU women activists have focused on leadership training
for women union members, the removal of sex discrimination (pay equity
and Equal Rights Amendments Act), and legal changes (lobbying for
publicly- supported universal day care).

The transitions from patriarchal to feminist practices and
ideologies occur at different rates across various issues within the
Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. Patriarchal sexist
practices in pinups and beauty contests had essentially ended by the
early 1960s, but patriarchal ideologies and practices in the domestic
sphere persisted well into the 1980s. Liberal feminist emphases on
gender equality made their influence felt as early as the 1950s and
1960s in the sphere of wage labour, especially in pay equity and non-
traditional work.

The 1970s was the period of the most intense hiatus -- perhaps a
'patriarchal feminist' or 'feminist patriarchal' time. Patriarchal
practices were still strong, yet emergent feminist ideas made
themselves felt. This is THE prototypical transition period.

(11) Transitions do not occur without struggles and
resistance. RWDSU women activists did struggle to tear down the
patriarchal barriers to their greater participation in union affairs.
Part of this was persuading the 'RWDSU RECORD' to portray a
more positive image of women. There was certainly resistance to
'feminist incursions' by male union officials and the male editors at
the RECORD. In the end, the union's patriarchal past was not replaced
by an equally strong feminist presence. Instead, patriarchal
practices, ideologies and structures withered on a hybrid vine
combining an absence or vacuum with a dose of liberal and trade union
feminism. While the more blatant sexist practices, like pinups and
beauty contests, vanished, 'milder' expressions of patriarchy - like
the stereotypical association between women and household labour -
continued, and coexisted with campaigns for legal gender equality in
wage work. More assertive forms of feminism of the socialist and
radical variety failed to become predominant.